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Andria Gaskins

A Second Helping

Synopsis

Michelle Taylor knows what it's like to be cheated on. And following the death of her best friend, she changed her life. She returned to her maiden name, sold her specialty food store and moved back to North Carolina with her two boys. A chance encounter at a local barbecue restaurant lands her the perfect contractor to revive an old farmhouse she purchased during her divorce. Not only is he qualified for the job, but he's the first man in a long time to make her feel good about herself. But when her ex-husband moves to town, he brings a truckload of regret, attitude and drama onto the scene.
Michelle wants to live her new life in peace. But, how is she supposed to do that when she’s stuck between the man she’s afraid to trust with her heart and the man who broke it?

Author Biography

Andria Gaskins is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Life University School of Chiropractic. After a several years as a chiropractor, she left her practice to stay home full-time with her children. She is a prize-winning home cook turned romance novelist. She has married her passion for food and family to create her debut novel A Second Helping. Andria has appeared on Food Network and the Cooking Channel and currently has a regular cooking segment on Charlotte Today, a local live lifestyle and entertainment show in Charlotte, North Carolina. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and their two boys.

Author Insight

Blind Dates and Second Thoughts

Like Michelle, a lot of us have had that blind date we wish we could take back. When I was in college, I got set up with the most beautiful guy I had ever seen (until I met my husband, of course.) He had a hot body like Tupac and these puppy dog eyes with long eyelashes. But he was dumb as rocks! He was an aspiring rapper with no skills. After dinner, he attempted to be charming and seductive by saying, "I usually don't date big girls, but you are sexy as hell." Then he squeezed me in a hug and made this sucking-grunt sound. I couldn't get to my car fast enough.

Book Excerpt

A Second Helping

With Anthony Construction on board, Michelle’s mind was now free to obsess about other things.

Like blind dates.

Tired of her sisters hassling her about getting out more, she had agreed to meet a cousin of one of Noelle’s colleagues for coffee after church. Now she was waiting in the Mint Hill Coffee Shop a few miles from the farmhouse for another blind date she wished she hadn’t accepted. She hated blind dates, yet this was her eighth one in three years.

She breathed in the soothing coffee aroma surrounding her in an attempt to calm the strange feeling brewing in her stomach. A tall fit man walked into the shop. His bald head and clean-shaven face got her attention. She hoped he was Daniel Pierce.

When he glanced around the room, his eyes fixed on her and he smiled—a perfect sparkling grin. She’d hit the jackpot. He rushed over to the small round table near a side door, where she’d stationed herself—just in case—for a quick exit.

“Michelle?”

“That’s me,” she said, rising to her feet. “Daniel, right?” She put out her hand to shake his.

“Yeah, that’s right.” He took her hands in his and opened her arms wide. “Charles said you looked good, but I wasn’t expecting all of this.” He scanned her body, then grunted.

Michelle felt the angst in her stomach revving up again.

“Damn, you look good,” he said. “I’d get my vasectomy reversed just so I could stick a baby in there. How long before we get out of here, go someplace where we can be alone?”

Did he think she was an early afternoon booty call?

She withdrew her hands. “I’m sorry, but this isn’t going to work.” She lifted the strap of her bag from the back of her chair and within seconds was out the side door and in her SUV. She peeled out of the parking lot, leaving Daniel Pierce and his vasectomy to enjoy the rest of their Sunday without her.

What was it about her that attracted weirdos? She was a decent looking woman with a curvy figure she kept in shape, and thanks to good genes she looked about ten years younger than her age. And she was a nice person. So what was the problem? If she knew the answer to that, she could avoid dates with creepy men.